


Mercy Has Many Faces

by WordMusician



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Doomsday fix it, F/M, post Day of the Doctor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-26
Updated: 2017-04-28
Packaged: 2018-10-24 10:11:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10739580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WordMusician/pseuds/WordMusician
Summary: Doomsday fix-it that happens because "The Day of the Doctor" happened.  Thank you S. Moffat for opening the door, so to speak!





	1. Gallifrey Falls No More

**Author's Note:**

> Galifrey was saved in The Day of The Doctor, so travel between parallel worlds is now possible once more. I know that Ten and Eleven had to forget their role in averting destruction via the Moment, but Twelve would not have any such memory restrictions. He would remember everything that the War Doctor, the Tenth and the Eleventh knew. So what is stopping him from reuniting with Rose? If he could change his own history once, why not twice?
> 
> I first wrote this as if it had happened right after The Day of the Doctor, which for 12 I set as between Season 9 & 10\. (I had to entertain myself somehow with the LOOOOOONG wait for the show to come back!!) Now we read rumors that the first time we see 12 is actually just before he regenerates. If this is true, then this would actually be 13's story to start with, but since we don’t know anything about that regeneration, I kept to 12 for this story. (Maybe I’ll do a re-write in the future...)
> 
> As always, I own nothing of Doctor Who but deep affection and admiration.

  
_Gallifrey falls no more._ The words whispered in the halls of the TARDIS in a voice he heard in his memories. His own voice. Not his voice now, but a younger voice, a happier voice, a hope-filled voice. The words pounded to the rhythm of his double heartbeat. _Who knows...who....knows..._

When he had defeated the trap of the Pandorica and rebooted the universe he had entertained a mad hope that he would be freed from his Great Regret. But that hope had been only the ephemeral wishes of a madman. The Great Regret still lurked in the shadows of his damaged soul and he expended a ridiculous amount of energy forgetting just enough to allow himself to function in the reality he was condemned to. Yes, he had become the Man-Who-Forgets because as the Man-Who-Regrets he had nearly destroyed everything.

But now he was a new man, one haunted by the question of whether he was a good man. He wore a face that he dimly remembered having seen before. Why had he become the face of a man he'd rescued from Pompeii? There was nothing particularly remarkable about that man – just a family man who had been kind to him. Someone he'd chosen to rescue from a fixed point disaster because dear Donna had begged him to. Was that all there was to it? He wore the face of the man he’d shown mercy to? Could that be who was now: a man of mercy? Mercy to whom?

Now that he'd answered his own call to execute the brilliant plan of whisking Galllifrey away into a pocket universe and ending the Time War, he had the uncomfortable sensation of time rippling and passing through him in ever expanding waves. It was a timequake unlike any before. Half formed thoughts and memories were sliding away as reality re-formed around him. Messing with your own time line did that to a person. Basic Time Lord. Heavily discouraged. Banned even. Was that what he was? A rebel? A breaker of rules? Of one thing he was pretty certain: he was no longer running away. Not like before.

He stared upward into the cavernous ceiling of his TARDIS and let himself ask the question, “Now what?” He/they had changed everything by withholding the Moment. _“Bad Wolf Girl”_ his War Doctor self had said. Was it really true? Had Bad Wolf actually gone back into that time-locked event or had she always been the Moment – the most powerful weapon ever to exist?

Did the Moment become Bad Wolf who became Rose Tyler or had Rose Tyler become Bad Wolf who then became the Moment? He remembered how the Moment had appeared to him as the War Doctor. He hadn't recognized her then, of course but now his fierce and sudden attachment to a teenage shop girl made a lot more sense. As he allowed himself to ponder, he dared to crack open the vault of his memories. Slowly he let himself remember.

 ** _“I am Bad Wolf. I create myself . I take the words and I scatter them in time and space. A message to lead myself here.”_** Rose, his beautiful Rose stood with the light of the vortex swirling around her. Her voice resonated with the immeasurable power of a goddess. Her eyes burned with the light of a billion suns. He had been terrified for her: what had his lovely human girl become? What had the TARDIS done and how could she have agreed to this transformation that surely would destroy her?

 _ **“I looked into the TARDIS and the TARDIS looked into me,”**_ she had explained. That was what Blon Fel-Fotch did and she had regressed to an egg! Rose had become a goddess... had she always been Bad Wolf? Had Bad Wolf cloaked itself in the “sheep's clothing” of a human girl? What for?

 _ **“I want you safe. My Doctor,”**_ he still thrilled at those words – she had claimed him as her own. Had that been Rose talking or Bad Wolf or both? If he was ‘her Doctor’ then for what purpose?

 _ **“Protected from the false god.”**_ At the time, he had thought she meant the Dalek Emperor. The Emperor had thought so too and she had destroyed him with a thought. Now he wondered was that truly the 'false god' Bad Wolf referred to, or was there something else/someone else that was false from which she had determined he needed protection? Gallifrey falls no more whispered his memory again.

Vaguely he was aware of a crippling weight lifting. Had he used the Moment as he had intended, as he had believed he must, it would have cost him everything. He would have cured the Universe and cursed his very existence. What kind of Doctor eliminates his own kind and countless other beings? How often had the Daleks taunted him with that very accusation: that he was just like them? That perhaps he was the horrible Hybrid of the Matrix prophesies. Davros certainly seemed to think so....

Unaware, tears slid down his face. Bad Wolf had demonstrated incredible mercy by giving him the opportunity to arrive at another solution. The Moment had allowed the Doctor to know the wonder of 'physician, heal thyself'. He was certain that he had not been worthy, but such is the nature of grace.

 _ **“I can see everything. All that is, all that was, all that can ever be.”**_ The Doctor shivered as he remembered the seductive power emanating from her. No wonder he had kissed her! It was as if the Untempered Schism had taken on flesh and was calling on him to live up to his chosen name – the Doctor. He'd had to heal Rose before her humanity burned away and she became ash like the Dalek fleet.

 _ **“All that is...”** _ He loved her and he'd realized in that moment that she knew he did. She knew everything and still she had claimed him and protected him. It hadn't just been the seductive power of time that had caused him to kiss her. He could have pulled the vortex out of her without touching her lips, but he wanted to. Oh, how he'd wanted to and he hadn't cared how complicated things might become afterwards. The fact that Rose apparently forgot the episode had been an unmerited reprieve for his time lord sensibilities as he regenerated.

 _ **“...all that was...”** _ Obviously she had seen the Time War and chosen to change its outcome. She had inserted herself into the crucible of his existence and effectively rewrote his life. Redemption in the form of Rose Tyler.

Flash cards of his later companions riffled through his awareness. He knew they still existed but he also sensed that somehow they were now different too. Their stories had changed in profound ways and had the potential to change even more if he dared to do what he was contemplating. _Gallifrey falls no more...._

 _ **“...all that can be...”**_ The Doctor's knees buckled as he gasped in shock. Heartbreaking memories of a blank white wall and a hologram beach crashed into his vision. Rose! The reality of his Great Regret squeezed his hearts anew. Rose had always been the braver of the two – only she had the courage to name their relationship for what it truly was: love. And then when he'd had a second chance at the love of his life he'd sacrificed it for her happiness, giving her the life he assumed he could never have: to love and live and grow old together... He had forced himself to walk away and leave her trapped where he would never have to witness her withering and dying... He was such a coward.

But! What if Bad Wolf had taken care of that eventuality too? _ **“I bring life....”** _ she had announced. Perhaps Jack Harkness wasn't the only life Bad Wolf changed that day! If she saw all that would happen, she knew what they would become to each other. She saw how they would be separated. She would know his Great Regret and how it would shape them.... For the first time in billions of years, a tiny glowing spark of hope glimmered in jaded blue eyes.

He could hear his own voice, a younger voice explaining to his Rose how travel through the void had been possible once upon a time...when there had been other time lords to work together... “There _are_ other time lords....just tucked away in a pocket universe somewhere,” he murmured. “I just have to find them.”

He gazed around the room in growing wonder. “I could go and see her. I could see Rose! I could tell her...” he paused and frowned. He had a different face now. He remembered how difficult it had been for her between his ninth and tenth faces (granted she'd been recovering from Bad Wolf at the same time). How would she feel about this older face, with its attack eyebrows and gruff Scottish accent? And what about her relationship with his meta-crisis self? He imagined they married – he knew he wanted to – and that they had a family – he so wanted that too. There would be no welcome for him from that quarter – he didn't have to have too much imagination to know how that would go down. “No, not good. That won't do.”

A myriad of calculations ran through his impressive time lord brain. Chasing time lines through a timequake was futile. His metabolism increased alarmingly – as if he was in a primitive fight or flight situation, as if his very life depended upon his solving this riddle. Perhaps it did. How can he heal the Great Regret? Instinctively he reached out and grabbed his guitar which the TARDIS had kindly materialized at his side. This regeneration was musical and he had found he did his best thinking as he fingers flew over the strings and frets.

A haunting melody rose from his hands and filled his ship. He paused, letting the notes die away; had he heard something else in the echoing sound? Had that been her laughter? When he played and closed his eyes had he smelled her shampoo? After all this time? Impossible. But hadn't the dimension cannon proven he didn't really know what that word meant? Perhaps “impossible” was only the label one placed on the self-imposed parameters of what one accepted as possible. He bent his head and played on.

Eventually, the Doctor set aside his guitar and jumped to his feet. “Right then, step one: Find Gallifrey.” He swiftly moved about the TARDIS console, keying in commands and flipping switches. With a decisive flourish he pulled down the lever that engaged the time rotor.

“Step two,” he watched the rotor rise and fall, “Make friends or establish control.” He smiled wryly and chuckled at his private joke; he was under no illusions as to his relationship with the High Council.

“Step three, change my own time line.” Precedent had been set – it was about time he seized the opportunity and took some personal advantage with the power he’d been relegated. Perhaps the person he needed to have mercy on was himself.

He briskly climbed the stairs to the upper gallery and threw himself into his wing chair. “Step four, rescue Rose Tyler and erase a man’s existence.” He paused in his ruminations to consider the meta-crisis. If this worked, then he would probably never be born. The Doctor considered the Matrix prophesies... part time lord, part human.... What species was more warlike than humans – Dalek exempted? Yes, perhaps he was the dreaded Hybrid; in that case this choice was truly best for all.

In his mind's eye they stood together on another beach. “How long are you going to stay with me?” he dared to ask her, keeping his voice light to hide his nervousness. “Forever,” she'd vowed with more gravitas than his flippant question had warranted. Had that been Rose Tyler speaking or was Bad Wolf present too? Certainly, Rose had never left his heart and resided ever in his memories – that was a type of forever. Ah, but what if 'forever' could mean more than the may-fly existence of a human and a meta-crisis?

“Please,” he prayed to whatever deity might actually exist or care.


	2. Step One:Find Gallifrey; Step Two: Make Friends or Take Control; Step Three:Change My Own Time Line - Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First three parts of a four part plan - chapter title says it all.

**Step One: Find Gallifrey. Step Two: Make friends or take control.**

In the end, finding Gallifrey without going through his confession dial hadn't been that difficult. They'd left a convenient trail of proverbial bread crumbs from the crack last seen on Trenzalore, if one knew where to look. There was something very magical about stepping out of the TARDIS and walking on his home planet. Nice place to visit, but he wasn’t going to stay. He revisited the barn where everything (and nothing) had changed. Physical proximity refreshed more of his memories. After deactivating the Moment, he remembered his 11th self had spirited her/it away to the safe vastness of his TARDIS. Traveling all of time and space with the Moment aboard did not concern him as much as it probably should have.  He was that kind of man.

As to the second step, well nothing really worth having is ever easy. In hindsight, the Doctor realized he should have known he'd be betrayed. After all, he wasn't exactly the poster child for time lord polite society. He wondered if there was still a time lord regulation he hadn't bent if not outright broken. The fact that he didn't seem to care was the realization that signed his death warrant. And yet, he prevailed.

He had learned a lot from his old friend the Cosair about raiding the enemy and challenging those who were in the wrong. Anything that would keep him from Rose was now the enemy and if it took another regeneration to accomplish his desires, so be it. They could make him change his face but they could not make him change his heart. Perhaps it was time he got an Ouroboros tattoo as well, in memory of his friend but also as acknowledgment of his own circular existence.

In characteristic eleventh hour drama, Romana set in motion the necessary pieces of his “love quest” as she derisively called it. Her connections outside the High Council paved the way for finding a handful of less xenophobic time lords who were willing to work with him in crossing the void. He escaped Gallifrey with his twelfth face intact and made an initial meeting. Time and space coordinates were chosen. As much as he wanted to initiate the sequence immediately, he held to his previous plan.

After making a trip to 23rd century Swindon to obtain a hatbox, the Doctor prepared to cross his own time line and visit his younger self.

  
**Step 3:Change my own time line – again**

  
The Doctor crashed his impressive eyebrows together, resisting the urge to throttle his younger self. “Oh, come on! You can't tell me you haven't thought about it! I know you have! I have and that's the same thing now isn't it? Stop being so miserably emo.”

“Oi!” Angrily he scrubbed at the tears on his face, “I see: now I'm rude and silver not ginger! If you are me – and I know you are – then you know what just happened. Rose is...”

“Rose is weeping on that god-forsaken beach and you must help her. You. Can. Go. And. Get. Her.” he said the last very slowly as if to a less than intelligent child. Honestly, there were times when he was so very thick!

“But...”

“Look, okay? Things are not as you think they are. Reality has changed, but you haven't been swept up in the time wave yet so you don’t feel it. That will come. You and another couple of us, with the help of Bad Wolf - “

“Bad Wolf!”

“Shut up and listen! Listen! All you need to know right now is that you can cross the void.” He held up a silencing hand, “Don't say it's impossible – you don't know what that word means. My advice? Just delete it from your vocabulary; it will save us a lot of embarrassment. Go to these coordinates and you will find a way across the void.”

The Doctor watched as his future self input the necessary information into his TARDIS. His emotional equilibrium had taken quite a beating. First he was forced to watch Rose fall to her eternal doom only to be caught by Pete at the last moment and safely trapped in a parallel world. Then he had exhausted himself and burned up a sun trying to find a way to get her back and eventually resigning himself to a significantly less than satisfactory goodbye. Only then he had his world rocked again as Rose blurted out the three words he had never hoped to ever hear and was he was cut off before he could properly respond.

And here he was now, only minutes later being upbraided by his future self with mad assertions that the conclusions which had totally crushed his spirit were false! Apparently he had crossed his own time line to get him to do the impossible.. er, the incredible... and what? Re-write history? Change his own time line?

“You want me to change our own time line?”

“Yes and before you get all self-righteous, we've already done it. Your future, our past.” He flashed a sardonic grin, “You know how it is.”

“Right,” he rubbed at the back of his neck in thoughtful distraction. “Crossing the void, is it a one way trip?”

“Does it matter?”

“No.”

The older Doctor's smile was gentle. “No. You will be able to cross back. Probably void travel will become... as it were.”

“As it were? Do you mean...?” Arched brows disappeared under chestnut fringe.

“Spoilers, as an old friend would say.” The Doctor frowned, wondering how this decision would surely impact her. He shrugged. Ultimately it did not signify. Rose would always come first.

“How did you get here, by the way?”

“Oh the TARDIS was surprisingly cooperative. With a bit of jiggery-pokery and the contents of a certain hatbox from 23rd century Swindon – ”

“The Corsair's sub-dimensional vortex! He gave it to you!”

“I didn't ask permission. Now, are you going to do this?” The Doctor was concerned because his memories hadn't shifted. His time lines were still in wild flux and he was getting a tremendous headache from it all.

The younger Doctor sighed pessimistically.  He was convinced he did not deserve this happiness and he was afraid the universe knew it. “Of course I want to, but –”

“No buts. Listen to me. I've lived the life without Rose; I've lived the life with the Great Regret. We don't want to do that. We don't want to be what I became because you was too much of a coward to confess my feelings!”

“But,” the Doctor sputtered and he found himself gripped fiercely by the shoulders.

“NO!” Fierce blue eyes drilled into stormy brown ones. “Don't be a stubborn idiot.” He gentled his grip, but did not let himself go. “Rose said she would stay with you forever; you can’t have forgotten. That was after you met Bad Wolf. Think about it.”

For a suspended minute, the Doctors stared at each other. Simultaneously the two grinned and the older Doctor could finally feel the beginnings of the Time Quake. “Go!” he urged himself. “I'll leave you to it then.”

The younger Doctor caught at his velvet sleeve. “Thank you.”

“No, thank you!” he shouted victoriously and vanished from the younger TARDIS.


	3. Step 4: Rescue Rose Tyler (and erase a man’s existence)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to bringing Gallifrey back we can at last have our fluffy ending to an intolerable situation.

His beautiful face faded from her misty vision and she bent double on the cold wet sand.  The choking sobs she'd held back broke free. It was over.  She'd given him her forever but this was how it was ending. She'd thrown out her words of love like a life line but they'd had fallen short.  Yes, he'd heard them – she had seen that on his face – but it hadn't been enough to save her, to save them, to somehow pull them back together.

 

The cold North Sea surf pounded and for one mad moment she was tempted to run into its numbing embrace.  How could she live without him?  And yet her body did not move.  Long ago he'd asked her to have a fantastic life, to do that for him when he thought he was the one who would die.  She wanted to honour his request.  She wanted to be what he believed her capable of.  She'd been trying, hadn't she?  She'd been nice to Pete and patient with Mickey and Mum.  She'd got a job with this universe’s Torchwood (much to her mother’s chagrin).  She'd forced herself to get up each and every day and go through the motions and try so hard not to scream at all the inconsistencies...

 

_“Burning up a sun just to say goodbye,”_ he'd said.  She felt as cold and dead as that poor star.  How do people do it?  How had Sarah Jane got on with her life after the Doctor left her? _“Some things are worth getting your heart broken for.”_ Maybe they were made of sterner stuff.  Maybe they didn’t love him like she did. She hardly felt her mum's arms reach around her and pull her close.

 

Jackie had a hundred questions buzzing in her head, but the most important one had already been answered by the heartbreaking sobs of her daughter.  Making soothing nonsensical noises every mother seems to know she gently steered her towards the waiting men.  She already had plans to wrap her darling in a blanket and ply her with hot sweet tea.

 

A wheezing moan temporarily drowned out the sea and everyone twisted to stare at the materializing blue box.

 

Rose broke away from her mother’s arms and began a stumbling run over the sand.  She stopped a few feet away, uncertain if she was hallucinating or if this was another ghostly projection.

 

The door creaked open and out he stepped.

 

Tentatively, Rose raised her hand, “Can I?”

 

The Doctor closed the space between them in two long strides, sweeping her into a fierce hug.  “Oh yes!” he choked out.  One glimpse of her pale tear streaked face had shattered any reserve.

 

“You’re here,” Rose stated the obvious, pressing her face into his coat.  “What about universes collapsing and all that?”

 

The Doctor shrugged.  “Let’s just say I have received a lesson in the meaning of impossible.” His fingers found their way to her hair.  “Actually, I think I’m going to drop that word right out of my vocabulary.  With my gob I’ll hardly miss one word.”  
  
“Alright by me,” Rose hiccupped giving him a water smile.

 

“I tried to time this so I came back right after I left.  Did I..?”

 

“Close enough.”

 

The Doctor straightened, setting Rose just slightly away from him so he could clearly see her face.  “Good.  That’s very good because I seem to recall being rudely interrupted the last time we spoke.”

 

“Yeah?” she searched his expression, suddenly nervous.  She’d been an emotional wreck – still pretty much was – and had blurted out her best kept secret.  Had she spoiled everything?  The Doctor was her best mate and being in love with him would definitely complicate things if he didn’t feel the same way. She was pretty sure he fancied her, but what did alien love look like?  Could time lords even fall in love...?

 

“Yes Rose Tyler.  And as I have been granted a second time to say it…” he took a deep breath, exhilarated but still painfully shy.  Rassilon! Was a mighty time lord actually shaking in his shoes before a slip of girl?  _In for a penny, in for a pound as they say..._ “Rose Tyler…I love you.”  He didn’t wait to see her reaction after all; he acted on instinct and kissed her instead.

 

Rose’s arms were winding around his shoulders nearly before his lips touched hers.  She eagerly pressed close and kissed him back, pouring all of her heart into the caress. 

 

They clung to each other, giving and taking comfort until Jackie cleared her throat, impatiently dashing a few tears from her own eyes.  “Not that you’d notice, but its bloody freezing out here,” she called out.

 

They broke apart with gasps and laughter.  In the heat of the moment, the Doctor had forgotten to engage his respiratory bypass system so he was as flushed and panting as Rose.  Tucking her close to his side, he nodded to Jackie and glanced over to Pete and Mickey.  “Right you are, Jackie.  Bit bleak this _Darlig Ulv Stranden_.  Shall we go inside?”

 

“We’ve got the truck to get back.  You two go on and meet us at home.  Go straight there, mind you Doctor, don’t go swanning off with my daughter until you’ve had a proper sit down with us.  You’ve got some explaining to do.”  With a warning glare, Jackie waved them off and headed back toward Pete and Mickey.  Once her back was to them, she allowed herself a joy filled grin and quickened her steps.

 

They watched them drive off and then the Doctor turned Rose’s face up towards his for another kiss.  This one was sweeter and slower.  Rose still felt very much bemused by the sudden reversal of events, but this gentle touch did more to bring her back to ground.  A sudden cold gust lifted her hair and had her shivering.

 

“Come on,” the Doctor urged and pushed her towards the TARDIS.

 

He brushed past her up the gangway shedding his top coat as he went.  With practiced ease he tossed it over a coral strut and began to work the console.  “I’m sure you have many questions.”

 

“Some, yeah,” Rose admitted lovingly watching him.  The TARDIS was singing in her head and waves of welcome and affection were washing over her.  The separation had been too long and it was almost distracting now.  “Is she gonna be alright?  I mean the last time we came here, she got sick, yeah?”

 

The Doctor paused, impressed by Rose’s concern for the TARDIS.  Once more she was putting something (someone? hard to say, sentient ship and all) before herself, before them.  “She’s fine.  Granted she can’t stay indefinitely in Pete’s World, but last time she was unshielded and we crashed.  This visit was planned and prepared for.”

 

“Then she’s gotta go back?”

 

“Yes, the energy here is alien to her systems, she can’t refuel.”

 

“Yeah, of course.”

 

The Doctor looked across the console at Rose.  There was sub-text here and the Doctor was surprising himself with a newfound desire to chase after relational nuances.  He’d never been a domesticated time lord. A whole new world was stretching out before him…“Rose?”

 

She took a deep breath; best to have this conversation before they rejoined the others.  “Is this a visit or a rescue?”

 

“Which do you want it to be?”  He schooled his face to remain neutral.  This had to be Rose’s decision.  Her family was here now and he knew how important family was.  Jackie was pregnant too – surely Rose would want to be around for that.  Despite their words and actions, old insecurities quickly surfaced.  What was he anyway but an ancient and damaged alien…

 

“Can it be both?”

 

“Both?”

 

“Yeah, can we come back and visit sometime or is this a onetime thing and the universes will be sealed off once we go?”

 

The Doctor let out the breath he hadn’t known he was holding.  _She had said we!_   “Right!  Sorry!  Yes we can come back and visit.  Probably not for long and probably not that often, but this is a time machine, right?”

 

Rose smiled and nodded.  She really didn’t care how he had come to get here, just that he had.  She knew she could ask and he’d babble on some sciencey-spacey explanation that would fly right over her head.  She knew she probably would ask, at some point.  But for now, the situation didn’t need explaining.  His words and his kisses had been enough to fill her empty heart with effervescent joy.  She wanted to dance and sing and shout and cry all at once, so she did nothing but stand there and watch him. 

 

For once, the TARDIS landed with a gentle bump and the Doctor came around to stand before her.  He took her hands in his, swinging them gently. “We’ve arrived.  Depending on Pete’s driving and Jackie’s need to stop, we have 18 hours 54 minutes.  What would you like to do?”

 

Rose tilted her head considering, “Well…,” she drawled in a pretty convincing imitation of his speech habit, “I could show you around the house, I suppose.”

 

“Okay,” the Doctor smiled,“18 hours 24 minutes.”

 

“It’s a really big house.”

 

“18 hours 14 minutes.”

 

“And then there are the gardens…”

 

“18 hours.”

 

“Front and back.”

 

“17 hours 50 minutes.” The Doctor’s thumbs slid under her wooly warmers and traced lazy patterns on the back of her hands.

 

“We could have a cuppa.  All the tour guide stuff is gonna make me thirsty.” Rose was giving him her trademark tongue in cheek smile.

 

‘With biscuits?” he was inching closer.

 

“Of course.”

 

“17 hours 33 minutes, and that’s with letting you have two cups of tea.” His voice was pitching lower and his dark gaze was steadily flitting between her sparkling eyes and pink lips.

 

“You’re generous.”

 

“I’m trying.”  He was definitely in her personal space now, “But you’re killing me here, Rose Tyler.”

 

“Oh?” she batted her eyes up at him in a poor attempt at innocence. “Why? What would you like to do, Doctor?”

 

The Doctor wasted no time using words

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While this plot line opens up a huge number of questions regarding future companions and events, I want to leave it here on a happy note. I hope you've enjoyed this at least half as much as I did imagining its possibility.


End file.
